A Film by Linda Goldstein Knowlton
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SOMEWHERE BETWEEN A Film by Linda Goldstein Knowlton HOT DOCS SCREENING INFORMATION Sunday, May 1 st at 6:30pm – Cumberland (Alliance Cinemas, 159 Cumberland Street) Tuesday, May 3 rd at 10:30am – The ROM Theatre (100 Queen's Park) http://www.hotdocs.ca/film/title/somewhere_between RUNNING TIME : 94 minutes OFFICIAL WEBSITE : http://www.somewherebetweenmovie.com/ FACEBOOK PAGE : http://www.facebook.com/somewherebetweenmovie TWITTER : http://twitter.com/swherebetween Publicity/Press Contact : PRODIGY PR Erik Bright, c: 310-902-1355 [email protected] Alex Klenert, c: 917-400-1739 [email protected] CAST AND CREW Featuring interviews with Jenna Cook Haley Butler Ann Boccuti Fang “Jenni” Lee Fang’s mom Hanni Beyer Lee Fang’s dad Alan Lee Jenna’s mom Carol Gates Jenna’s mom Peggy Cook Jenna’s sister Sara Cook Ann’s mom Cathy Boccuti Ann’s dad Bob Boccuti Haley’s mom Jeannie Butler Art Teacher, Berkeley High School Mr. Conn Founder, CAL/Global Girls Jennifer Jue-Steuk Board Member, CAL/Global Girls Kim Olenic Founder, Adoptees United, The Netherlands Hilbrand Westra Haley’s friend Emily Veer Teen Ambassador, CAL/Global Girls Leigh Barton Run Yi’s mom Sheryl Holle Run Yi’s physical therapist Mr. Wong Translator Jane Produced and Directed by Linda Goldstein Knowlton Executive Producers Bobby Chang John Fitzgerald Co-Produced by Patricia Verducci Katie Flint Associate Producer Stephanie Graves Director of Photography Nelson Hume Christine Burrill Composer Lili Hayden Editor Katie Flint Music Supervisor Linda Cohen Assistant Editors Yu Gu Susan Metzger Translation Miqi Huang Yu Gu Carla Zanoni “Somewhere Between” press kit, p. 2 of 8 MUSIC “Suddenly I See” “Orange Blossom Special” Written and Performed by KT Tunstall Written by Ervin Thomas Rouse Courtesy of Relentless Records under Performed by Haley Butler exclusive license to Virgin Records America Under license from EMI Film & TV Music “The Chinese Song” “My Country ‘Tis Of Thee” Written by Lili Haydn and Tom Salta Written by Samuel Francis Smith Performed by Lili Haydn Courtesy of RCA Victor By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing “Seeing The Reindeer” “Charlie Brown” Written, Performed by Lili Haydn and Kim Carroll Written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Courtesy of Lili Haydn and Kim Carroll Performed by Ann Boccuti “The Twins (Prague)” “Walking Into The Waves” Written and Performed by Max Richter Written by Haley Butler and Tyrus Morgan Courtesy of BBC Worldwide Limited Performed by Haley Butler ‘Taken from the album ‘Memoryhouse’ Courtesy of Haley Butler and Tyrus Morgan “Somewhere Between” press kit, p. 3 of 8 ABOUT THE FILM Since 1989, 150,000 children from China have been adopted around the world. Eighty thousand of those children live in the U.S.—in all 50 states. In SOMEWHERE BETWEEN, filmmaker Linda Goldstein Knowlton takes a very personal journey to tell the intimate stories of four teenage girls who live in different parts of the United States but are united by one thing: all four were adopted from China as a baby. As their birth parents could not keep them largely because of China’s One Child Policy, their new lives began halfway around the world in the US and these strong, young women have grappled with what it is like to come-of-age in today’s America as trans-racial adoptees. They grew up with Sesame Street, hip-hop, and Twitter. They describe themselves as “bananas” – white on the inside and yellow on the outside. They are typical American teenagers doing what teenagers everywhere do. All is well, until their pasts pull at them, and they start to wonder, “Who am I?” Knowlton, herself a parent who recently adopted a baby from China, follows these girls as they explore where they came from and as they open their hearts to experience love, compassion, and self-acceptance, all with great honesty and courage. Filming across America, the film unfolds completely from their point of view as the girls are documented in their hometowns facing racism, struggling with stereotypes, and trying to fit in while knowing that they may never completely fit in. They travel to Europe to meet other girls in their situation and then to China where a few of the girls seek out their birth parents, only to witness first-hand China’s gender gap resulting from its One Child Policy and the ramifications it exacts on Chinese families and orphanages. When SOMEWHERE BETWEEN plunges the viewer into the ordinary and extraordinary days of these four young women as they explore who they are, we too are forced to pause and consider who we are – both as individuals and as a nation of immigrants. And as the four girls discover who they are, anyone, no matter their color, creed or culture, will find themselves exploring their own identity and the meaning of family through these insightful girls who seem to overcome the shocking ways women and girls are treated throughout the world to not only set the example, but to also rewrite the rules. “Somewhere Between” press kit, p. 4 of 8 DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT My daughter's name is Ruby Goldstein Knowlton. She’s five. When my husband and I adopted her from China we had no idea what lay ahead. We became a family – in an instant. But as I began to think about Ruby's future, I started to wonder how her coming of age would differ from mine. I began talking to older girls who had been adopted from China and brought to the U.S. a decade or more ago, and plunged into a world not just of identity, but of what it means to be who we are. My film SOMEWHERE BETWEEN was born. The primary themes of SOMEWHERE BETWEEN are identity formation, family, adoption and race. And really, the film focuses on the intersection of all of these through the coming-of-age of four girls. As they discover who they are, so do we. Through their specific stories, we, as viewers, will come to understand on a deeper level, the meaning of family, and our still prevalent cultural disconnects around stereotyping and race – whether we are adoptive families or not. I hope the film will create an emotional experience for the audience and in the process, educate and help create a language around being “other” in the U.S. I also hope the film will reveal how we all form our identities, and our growing global and personal interconnections (especially around the networks of women and girls that have been formed due to this large wave of adoptions.) While all adoptees face similar feelings and challenges, I believe this wave of Chinese girls is in a category all its own - due to the sheer number of children involved, and because the adoptions (and abandonments) are based solely on gender. The personal, societal and cultural ramifications are significant. I am making this film for everyone. For the girls, so they can see their experiences in connection with each other, and for everyone who grapples with issues of race, culture, identity, and being ‘different.’ By necessity, we must all try to comprehend the experience of being ‘other’ in America, to see how each individual finds his or her way in society. Many of us have walked around our entire lives completely unaware of the privilege we wear by virtue of the color of our skin. This film will explore the emotional and psychological fallout on our daughters, ourselves, and our culture, when stereotypes and assumptions collide in a new, startling way. Through the voices of these young women, we will see not just their lives, but our own, reflected back to us – whether we are adoptive families or not. I hope SOMEWHERE BETWEEN will start a dialogue about what we see, who we are, and the changing face of the American family. This film is about these 79,562 girls growing up in America. Right now. Linda Goldstein Knowlton “Somewhere Between” press kit, p. 5 of 8 FEATURING INTERVIEWS WITH JENNA COOK HALEY BUTLER ANN BOCCUTI FANG “JENNI” LEE “Somewhere Between” press kit, p. 6 of 8 ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS LINDA GOLDSTEIN KNOWLTON (Director, Producer) Linda Goldstein Knowlton co-directed and co-produced the feature-length documentary, “The World According to Sesame Street.” The film examines Sesame Street's international co-productions, made primarily in some of the world's political hotspots, including Kosovo, Bangladesh, and South Africa. The film made its World Premiere in competition at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival as an Official Selection in the U.S. Documentary category. In addition to Hot Docs, the film was selected and screened at the following festivals: Seattle, Boston, Dubrovnik, New Zealand, Melbourne, and Zurich. Previously, Goldstein Knowlton produced the New Zealand film “Whale Rider,” directed by Niki Caro, which was the winner of the Audience Awards at Toronto, Sundance, Rotterdam, Seattle, San Francisco and Maui film festivals. Goldstein Knowlton became involved with “Whale Rider” in 1992, after reading the novella upon which it is based. Prior to that, she initiated the development of “The Shipping News” after reading the novel in galley-form in 1993 and then produced the 2001-released film, directed by Lasse Hallstrom. She made her feature- film producing debut in 1999 with both” Mumford,” written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan and “Crazy in Alabama,” directed by Antonio Banderas. She is currently developing both fiction and documentary films. Born and raised in Chicago, Goldstein Knowlton studied neuroscience at Brown University. Following college, she remained in Providence to serve the governor of Rhode Island in the Office of Intergovernmental Relations. She subsequently worked raising funds for film preservation at The American Film Institute, first in Washington, D.C., and later in Los Angeles.